Editorial: Schools budget misses the mark

The Shelby County unified school board's proposed budget for the 2013-14 school year asks the County Commission to give the newly merged district $145 million more than it gave county schools last year.

That is big-time sticker shock, even with the understanding that the new district will include the former Memphis City Schools as well as county schools.

It would take a $1 increase in the county property tax rate to fund the amount requested. County commissioners, even some who support the schools merger, are saying there is no way they will agree to fund that amount. The commission has the responsibility to set funding for the schools as part of its budget process for county government.

School board members approved a $1.3 billion budget proposal on a 15-5 vote last week to make a point about the importance of adequate funding to support operation of what they hope will be a world-class school system. They also noted that county funding for schools has been stagnant for the last five years.

Their reasoning was sound, but the resulting action was not. The budget approved by the board restored about $80 million in cost-saving cuts that school district staff had proposed earlier — much of it in operations categories such as central office staff, transportation and custodial services. County commissioners and taxpayers may wonder why board members did not make a case for implementing at least some of those measures and using the savings that would result to enhance the educational programs that could help propel the district to the world-class level.

The school board's budget leaves taxpayers facing a likely property tax hike of an undetermined amount to fund the schools.

Classes for the merged district are scheduled to begin Aug. 5. The starting-point budget submitted by city and county schools staff proposed $108 million in cuts and was still $65 million in the red. That proposal noted the deficit would grow to about $80 million if the merged district chose to immediately pre-fund long-term pension benefits, and to an estimated $145 million when the loss of $68 million in funding from Memphis city government is factored in.

The preliminary budget proposal from the schools staff recommended a slate of cost-cutting measures that would have saved $37.8 million in operations, $18.1 million in the central office (by cutting 170 employees), $20.4 million in staffing changes at some schools and $3.3 million by closing five schools.

The overall plan for the schools merger that was developed by the Transition Planning Commission predicted a first-year budget deficit only slightly smaller than the one contained in the staff proposal. The TPC projected a $57 million deficit after implementation of cost-saving measures, compared with the $65 million deficit in the staff proposal (excluding the immediate funding of pension benefits).

One of the biggest differences in the cost savings proposed in the TPC and staff plans lies in their proposals to close schools. The TPC recommended closing 10 schools to save about $20 million. The staff budget recommending closing five schools to save $3.3 million.

All of these budget numbers, admittedly, are dizzying. What really matters is the message the school board is sending to county commissioners and taxpayers. In addition to asking the County Commission to cover the $68 million loss in Memphis funding for schools and the $15 million in pension funding which could be delayed, 15 members of the school board voted to restore $65 million in proposed cuts, most of which would have had little to do with enhancing classroom instruction and programs.

That is not the best way to start a discussion about funding a world-class school system.